Jenn’s computer has been acting up, so we looked at replacing it but $999 for a new or even refurbished MacBook is not in the cards right now. We came upon the idea of an iPad, but she wasn’t sure she could live with just that. So, I got an iPad mini (32GB) and gave her my MacBook for now. Mine is 2 years newer than hers, but still 5 years old or so. It is temporary, I am sure we will get a new laptop in another year or two, but should work for now.

Shofar, I am ok with just the iPad. I have gone back to the computer a few times for goofy websites that just won’t work (namely Hulu, as I don’t see paying for Hulu plus just for Warehouse 13), and for resyncing a few items, but almost completely iPad for about 2 weeks now.

For saving files (I didn’t have all that many) I went with a mix of Evernote for PDFs and other read-only documents and Dropbox for anything I may need to edit. This may change to Dropbox only eventually. There is nothing wrong with Evernote, I just wonder if it may be easier to have everything in one place. I have read of many that swear by having both though, so am giving it a try.

I do not have an office app yet, but have been looking. I am waiting to see if LibreOffice comes to the rescue or if the rumors of Apple giving away iWork come true. I did by Grand Theft Auto III though (priorities, you know), but have not played enough for a review.

I got a case from someone at work, but not sure I like the bulk it adds. I had a case on my iPhone 4, but it ended up scratching the phone when dirt got caught between the case and phone. After that, I have been caseless on my iPhone 5. I have a feeling my iPad will end up the same, perhaps with a sleeve for travel though.

In other news, I took and passed my amateur radio exam last month, and have the call sign KD8VHX. Jenn was awesome and bought me a radio, 2 meter and 70cm bands. That gets me 10 or so miles range. It is a low cost option for now to see if I actually use it and if its worth spending for a HF radio with worldwide range (which are several hundred to a few thousand dollars!).

Jenn is going to Vegas with her mom and sister, on my birthday. I will make sure she makes it up to me later.

I think that’s about it for now, later all.

BREAKING UPDATE: Just noticed after posing, this is post 600 (in WordPress, it is probably a bit over that in post count).

Yes, today marks ten years since my first blog post. Around 2:21AM, so you could argue it was kind of yesterday, but whatever. This is post 599, with an unknown number of words, since I no longer have a way of tracking that.

I really do want to post more, it just has a habit of slipping my mind. When I had no life, I had nothing better to do but nothing to really say. For the past few years though, I have plenty to say, but no time to say it. I tried to blame Facebook, as I would just post there, but I barely even do that anymore.

I think not posting also brings on the issue you have with friends you don’t see for a while. You have a million things you would have told them, but you need to prioritize what to say and can’t pick, so wind up with nothing to say.

I have decided I am going to better utilize Flickr, especially with their new nearly limitless storage. I will post a link to my album prominently once I have it better set up, but for now you can view my photo stream here.

I have a few ideas for posts. I have some projects I did around the house I may try posting, or recipes or whatever. We will see.

I can’t say how much longer I will be blogging, but I do plan to keep it up for a bit longer, and take a serious stab at being more frequent.

I think I may have said it before, but when I started this all I had no life, which gave me nothing to say but all the time in the world to say it. Now, I have a life, am doing stuff, but always have something better to do that write it all down. That and Facebook gets most of the little updates now. I do mourn the loss of my record, that I could look back on when something happened, or reminisce about whatever event. It would be nice if I kept that up.

Regardless, today is nine years since I began the blog, and it will stay only for at least another year. I will put some thought into what happens beyond that over the next year though. Does it get converted to some different format, does it stay online, do I start using it for another purpose, or does it all just get archived to my hard drive? I have a year to decide.

In life type stuff, for those unaware, I have a permanent job (since July), a house (since September), and a dog (since November). All are going well.

So, thats about all I have for now. Too much to update on everything thats happened in the months since I posted, so I will just leave it here.

If you actually read this, let me know, so I have an idea of weather anybody reads and how worth it continuing to post would actually be.

So, just for fun, I am posting from my iPhone. Yes, I have a new iPhone. I need to set the blog back to the the homepage, now that I have a permanent job and don’t need to advertise for myself anymore. Also, on October 30, we would be at six months since my last update, so something here was needed. Hopefully more soon. Nick

So, I looked at the clock, then the calendar, and realized I am about to go 6 months without posting to the blog. It’s funny how you can go from posting every three days like clockwork for years to suddenly making it months between posts. Still, as the title says, it’s not quite dead yet. I think I just need a reason to post. I went for a long time treating this like a diary of sorts that happened to be open to the public. Problem is, that really only appeals to a few friends voyeur sides, and not really to the larger crowd. I haven’t figured out what direction to take yet, but I think once I pick a direction the journey itself will seem less daunting (that actually sounds a bit more “inspirational email signature” than I wanted, but will do).

The big news, I suppose, is that I am working, and have been since January 6, for Shape Corp in Grand Haven. I am a Quality Engineer there on the GM launch team. Shape, if you are not familiar (which you probably are not), is a rollforming and stamping company. The main products are “impact beams”, the steel structure within bumpers. The product line I am involved in primarily involves rollforming the beam then welding on several stamped components. It is not a permanent position, at least not yet. I am coming up to 4 months of a currently 5 month contract (originally 3 month, so thats something). No real word on what the future might bring, though I kind of expect something next week (it will be 1 month from contract end, which was when my last extenuation was announced). Honestly, even when my 5 months are up it may not mean the end, just a less certain future.

In other news, my 10 year high school graduation is this year, scary as that it. Venue and date are supposed to be announced tomorrow via the FaceBook group. It is rather exciting to look forward to seeing everyone and such, though it would be nice to be able to say I had a permanent job by then.

I am getting closer to my eventual backpacking trip. I have been picking up supplies here and there for quite some time, and its high time to actually put it all to use. This summer I really want to make at least one, mane two trips. I actually even got into making and selling hammocks after making myself one. I am not pre-making them anymore but will build them upon request. It helped with the bills for a little while.

The SME Disc Golf Fundraiser continued on this year, for the third year. Nice to see something I helped put together still going after I am gone. Unfortunately, the current SME group doesn’t use the Facebook group much and none of use knew about it until it was too late. Hopefully next years group will realize that reaching out to alumni during fundraisers is a good thing. The Christmas Parade float also was built again this year, another tradition I helped get off the ground. I went up to see it and ride along, and had quite a bit of fun.

The fish are, somehow, still getting bigger. I occasionally walk by and notice just how huge Kitty and Jill are. They need a bigger tank, but its just low on the list of needs right now.

Without job interviews, out travel has been semi limited. Also, time has been factoring in as well, with both Jenn and I having off being semi rare. We went to Bay City and Alpena for Christmas, NAIAS in January, and to Traverse City in March. Not much else though. I think a trip is due soon here though.

Jenn taught a Nursing CLinical course this winter for Baker College, Cadallac. It was held at Mecosta County where she works. She was also taking a class at GRCC over the internet at the same time. It was one of the pre-reqs she needed to apply for her master’s degree. Which leads us to… Jenn was accepted into the Nurse Practitioner program at MSU earlier this month. She will start in about a month with a spring/summer course, then get full bore into it come fall. It is online with approximately monthly trips to Lansing for tests and such. Very excited and proud of her, obviously. Something like 800 apply, 200 are interviews, and 50 are accepted each year, so definitely something big to get in.

Obviously there is much more I could probably write about, having about 6 months of stuff that is unshared, but I don’t want to bore you with most of it. I think 800 words is a pretty decent start after such an absence anyway. So, I will leave it here and hopefully be back well before November 1 rolls around.

Nick has been slacking on his posting, but with a good reason, so I thought I would post for him seeing as he hasn’t posted since last year. First and foremost is he has a job. Early January he started working at a company in Grand Haven as a Quality Engineer. YAH! That is the main reason for lack of posting. Nothing to post and then when there finally was, he was too busy working to do it.

Christmas was fun, it was nice to see all of the families and spend some time. We had turkey and ham dinner in Bay City which was delicious. Played some dj hero which was harder than it looks but had better songs than the guitar hero game that we have for the wii. Then at 3am we went up to Alpena with a 2am stop at Walmart in Tawas. Oh and there is a 24hour Tim Hortons in Tawas which was really surprising because it’s Tawas. Spent Christmas Eve at my Grandma’s party, it was nice to see everyone, some of my cousins, i hadn’t seen since the wedding. Also got to meet my little cousin Eva, she was adorable but still not ready for kids yet.

New Years was pretty uneventful. I worked so I celebrated it with the girls at work with some bubbly apple cider. The countdown is not as fun when there is no alcohol involved, lol. Nick went out to dinner with a friend from Ferris and then called me just after midnight.

We went to the auto show this weekend. We went down friday night and stayed in Auburn Hills. In the morning we got up and went to Great Lakes Crossings Outlet Mall. Got some really good deals including a pair of Timberland Boots for Nick for $30 which are 120 online. Then we went to lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack. That was awesome as usual. We split the classic steam bucket and an add on of cocconut shrimp. Even wore the bibs. From there we headed downtown to the auto show. Nick got tickets from work, so admission was free. We were going to park in the casino garage and ride the people mover like we always do, but forgot that we always go during the week and it was a Saturday. There were people and police everywhere and the garage was closed, so after taking ten minutes to go half way around the block, we paid 10 dollars to park in a lot and then went through the casino to the people mover. There were three DHS agents and a canine at the stop and we were packed in like sardines. The auto show was also packed, making it difficult to look at the cars. Nick got to see the car that he is working on at work, and we got to sit in the Impreza which is one of the cars he wants. I also got a chance to see and sit in the 2012 passat diesel which is the car that I want. We plan to go to the GR auto show next week where there should be a lot less people and we can spend more time actually looking at the cars.

ok, I know I am missing lots of stuff but at least a partial blog is better than none:)